Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2004
Publication Information
2 Nw. J. Int'l Hum. Rts. 1 (2004)
Abstract
Human rights have suffered sharp setbacks in the four years since the paper that follows was delivered in London in the summer of 2000. The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the Bush Administration’s ensuing “war on terrorism,” have led not only to a demotion of human rights on the list of American foreign policy priorities, but also to gross violations of human rights by Washington. Among other recent assaults on the rule of law are the prolonged detentions of hundreds of prisoners without trial or due process of law at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Repressive regimes around the world have happily seized on American regression as precedent and pretext to trample on due process of law and to crack down on political dissent.
The question is whether this is merely a temporary overreaction by a conservative administration, echoing the pattern of past American violations of civil liberties in times of war and emergency, or is instead the first sign of a long-term reversal of the human rights gains of the twentieth century. One hopes that this, too, shall pass.
Because the question remains open, however, I thought it best to leave the following essay as it stands, in its pre-9/11 innocence. Time will tell whether Washington and other governments regain their senses and come back to an appreciation of the hard-won gains for human rights in the twentieth century. For the reasons stated in the essay, I believe there is reason to remain guardedly optimistic.
This paper assesses the rights revolution in historical context and asks, What drives it?
Recommended Citation
Douglass Cassel,
The Globalization of Human Rights: Consciousness, Law and Reality,
2 Nw. J. Int'l Hum. Rts. 1 (2004).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/676
Comments
Reprinted with permission of Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights.